Wedding Crashers 2005

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: It's a combination of the kind of go-for-it comedies Hollywood routinely made before the PG-13 rating became a symbol as opposed to a standard targeting the widest, blandest possible audience, and sexy romantic comedy. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Why do so many contemporary comedies feel obliged to make room for heartwarming life lessons? Isn't it enough just to make people laugh? Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: There's no reason why this movie shouldn't have worked: it's got a funny premise, a talented cast and an obviously lavish budget. But it lands without even a crash; just a dull, unfunny thud. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: The flick brings two hours of great big sloppy buck-wild laughs by morphing into a cross between Meet the Parents and Some Like It Hot. Read more

Allison Benedikt, Chicago Tribune: An insipid romance, with some of the funniest guys in Hollywood squandered on gay jokes, a foul-mouthed grandmother and a checklist of family dysfunction. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Sharply honed, if often raunchy. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: It produces more laughs per minute than any film so far this year. Read more

Bob Townsend, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Under all the raunchiness, Crashers is actually sort of a sweet movie. And at its best, it perfectly channels the winning personalities of Wilson and Vaughn. Read more

Keith Phipps, AV Club: Sadly, in spite of its cast and seemingly can't-miss premise, Wedding Crashers is at its best a succession of mild chuckles. Read more

Bill Muller, Arizona Republic: The extended reception sequences are superbly done, and Vaughn and Wilson are at their best when they're being false and winning at the same time. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: The antidote to Hollywood's recent string of refried plots and allegorical disasters. Boldly, it embraces what too few big movies have this summer: fun. Read more

Carina Chocano, Los Angeles Times: John and Jeremy may be damaged, manipulative, emotionally stunted frat boys with mouths like truckers, but they have a sentimental streak a mile wide. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson are enormously funny. Read more

Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle: These Wedding Crashers are not for kids. For grown-ups who like their humor rutting and smart, however, they're unexpected but welcome guests. Read more

Michael Booth, Denver Post: Targeting adults means smarter material, if you get the right script, and writers Steve Faber and Bob Fisher have a nice ear for the funnier things that make us human. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: What we learn is that the pairing of Vaughn and Wilson is a success to do a matchmaker proud. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: When funny people don't censor themselves, funny things happen. Wedding Crashers knows this, and as a result it's one heck of a party. Read more

Scott Foundas, L.A. Weekly: [Plays] like an only slightly less benign spin on the tiresome fish-out-of-water farce that fueled the two Meet the Parents movies. Read more

Gene Seymour, Newsday: These guys are so perfectly matched, you only wonder why it took so long. Read more

Lisa Rose, Newark Star-Ledger: Beyond the amusing shtick spotlighted in the ad campaign, the picture is a self-nullifying blend of raunch and schmaltz. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: Through most of it, there is a wonderful comic energy, boosted by a near-perfect selection of songs, and it even manages to show a little heart without bringing the jocular affair to an abrupt halt. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson star in this amiably raunchy sex comedy as two cut-rate Lotharios who attend weddings specifically to pick up women. Read more

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: The most exhilarating entertainment to emerge this year from the failed, forlorn factory town of Hollywood, largely because of Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn, the best high-low comedy team since the hey-hey days of Paul Newman and Robert Redford. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: The funniest movie of the summer. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: If a film is going to be in bad taste, at least it should have the decency to follow through on its convictions, rather than morph into something else. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: There are individual moments that are very funny. But it takes a merciless focus to make a good comedy, and the director, David Dobkin, has too much else on his mind. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: Wedding Crashers may be the most optimistic Hollywood comedy of the year, because it restores at least some dim hope that directors, writers and actors with actual brains in their heads can somehow triumph over unimaginative studio execs. Read more

Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle: The film's pleasures are greatly outnumbered by its failed expectations. Read more

David Edelstein, Slate: The script by Steve Faber and Bob Fisher is one of those high-speed, ping-pong-banter marvels in which you're still laughing from the last great line when you're hit by the next. Read more

Jeff Strickler, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Even with Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn doing all they can to keep us entertained, this farce starts to run out of steam as soon as the writers start to run out of jokes. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: This crude and unabashedly cynical flick is the most uproarious Hollywood comedy since "Meet the Parents." Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: Wedding Crashers has something borrowed, a lot that's blue, something old and not much new. Read more

Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star: It's a pretty lousy movie with some funny parts. Read more

Time Out: It's good, but it's no Anchorman. Read more

Mike Clark, USA Today: Crashers slumps badly in the stretch when the filmmakers have to find a way to surprise us when we're fully aware of where the story is going. Read more

Brian Lowry, Variety: Wedding Crashers' real secret is that despite flashes of nudity, crudity and mockery of women's raging hormones at the first sight of a trousseau, at its core it's just a big pushover with the heart of a chick flick. Read more

Jessica Winter, Village Voice: Amiable and hollow. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: It's often dirty, yes. But it's also manic and inspired. Read more

Stephen Hunter, Washington Post: Lung-bloatingly funny. Read more